


Light Years Away

by Totsacat



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Eventual Romance, F/F, alien - Freeform, this is my first fanfic ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-21 04:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11936661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Totsacat/pseuds/Totsacat
Summary: aboard the ss Luna nova everything is business as usual, until comms specialist Atsuko kagari intercepts an odd transmission coming from the thought to be destroyed ss noir dream, the same ship that her hero shiny chariot supposedly died on nearly 10 years ago





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> wow, so this is my first fanfiction ever, so feed back will be great, I'm very in to syfi and felt like the lwa fandom could use a larger varity of AUs, hope i can do it justice :D

Fifteen light years, that’s how far away home was, Akko thought idly as she drummed her fingers on the console.  It was also the distance she had to successfully send every message updating mission control of their status. As the communications specialist for the SS Luna Nova, the largest and most energy efficient space station to date, it was Atsuko Kagari’s job to receive, decipher, and respond to all transmissions she could find. Luckily for the crew, she was very good at her job - she was even able to connect one of the engineer's to his family via Skype for his daughter's birthday. Of course, that was five light years ago, and it became harder and harder to get a clear connection between Earth and the station as the light years ticked away.  The young woman let out an audible sigh as she gently pushed out of her chair, letting herself float up into the empty space of the bridge.

“Yo! Kagari, what gives?” a boisterous voice called out. “I’m driving here!” The brunette ignored the pilot, a loud American by the name of Amanda O’Neil, and continued to float around, a relaxed smile forming on her face.  Unfortunately, her moment of Zen was cut short by a robotic voice coming on over the speakers.

“Ms. Kagari, please return to your station and refrain from free floating through the bridge.”

Akko ignored the snickering coming in from behind her and addressed the Station AI.

“Ugh, Alcor, you're no fun at all, lighten up some will yah?”

A pause.

“Perhaps I will ask specialist Yanson to remove my humor inhibitors”

Akko’s eyes snapped open. “You’re kidding, right?”

“...Yes Ms. Kagari, that was a joke.”

The Japanese woman swore softly as she twisted herself down towards her work area, but not before taking a glance out the bridge’s giant window. The station stretched out beyond the bridge, then past that, into nothing.  During the first 2 years of their travels there were plenty of stars, but for the past year, this has been the only view. Even now, after a year of it, it was still unnerving to look out into that expansive nothing. Beautiful, but unnerving nonetheless.

Akko hadn’t realized she had zoned out until she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

“AYIEE!!” Akko let out a shrill screech as she jolted away from Amanda, who had quietly floated down to Akko’s side in the middle of the room.

“Aren’t you supposed to be driving this thing?” huffed Akko, somewhat embarrassed at the undignified noise she had just made. 

Amanda let out a hearty chuckle. “Please, this station has been running on autopilot for months. I’m basically useless.”

“Do not sell yourself short, Ms. O’Neil. You are a valued asset to this expedition” Alcor's voice resonated through the bridge.

“Thank you, Alcor, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside,” the ginger groaned, looking towards Akko with an exasperated look.

“So how about you Akko? Have you been a valued asset to the expedition?” There was no malice in her statement, only genuine curiosity, but that didn’t stop Akko from uncomfortably squirming under the taller woman’s gaze.

“I’ve been sending weekly updates back home, but I haven’t picked up anything in over a week, not even static from a solar flare.” Akko admitted. Amanda didn’t know this, but Akko was incredibly self-conscious in her role at Luna Nova. Sure, she was excellent with soundwaves, but she struggled with every step of her training, barely scraping into the program. Without communications, what use was she?

Amanda simply hummed and floated back up to her spot. “Well then, why don’t you head out? Nobody would notice.”

It was true, today they were the only ones on the bridge. Akko could easily slip out and yet…

“But what if we pick up a signal?”

“You said it yourself, it’s been dead for a week.  I’m sure it’ll stay dead for a few hours. I promise I’ll call you if anything changes.” She paused before a devious grin spread across the pilot's face. “Hey! You can just say you’re feeling ill, go see a certain tall blonde physician. Maybe she’ll even give you a lollipop.”

Akko immediately felt her face and ears heat up at the ginger’s joke.

 “Sh—shut up, you ass!”

Amanda let out a cackle that could give a witch a run for her money.

“You make it too easy, Kagari. Too easy.”

Face still red, Akko began floating to the exit. “Gah! I’m leaving, ” she paused,  “...but not to see Dia-...Doctor Cavendish!” Amanda, meeting her quota for Kagari-teasing for the day, let the woman escape without another word.

With a smile still plastered on her face, Amanda settled back into her seat and looked out into the deep space. “This job was the best thing to ever happen to me,” she murmured happily, tapping few commands into her console and enjoying the silence of the large room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, sorry for the delay, combination of classes and my inexperience in writing kinda kicked my butt on this one, but enjoy!

“Um, hello, I could use some help?”  A brunette looked from her desk to help the newcomer until she saw who it was.  Her ‘helpful doctor’ mask fell instantly, “are you really back already?”

“Uhhehh,” a sheepish Akko had just entered the med bay holding a bloody cloth to her nose, “I can explain.” It was just her luck that Diana wasn’t here, instead it was…it was…

“I’m sorry, but what was your name again…?”

That got her an indigent gasp, “Atsuko, how is it you’ve been coming in and out of here for three years yet you’ve only managed to remember Diana’s name?” another huff, “and it’s Hannah, Dr. Hannah England!”

Akko simply shrugged, “well, you still don’t call me Akko - even after all these years, so consider us even!”

“Atsuko, you are so!  Ugh. you’re still bleeding,” Hannah closed the distance between the two and began to inspect Akko, “what did you even do?”

“Funny story...”

***

Akko really did mean what she said when she told Amanda she wasn’t going to go see Diana.   It wasn't like she didn’t want to, but that would be too predictable.   So, Akko decided to head to her cabin and get some rest.   As she came up to section of the station containing the crew quarters she found the hatch to be locked tight.   She let out a small whine as she pitifully tried to pry the door open.   But then she remembered the access codes she had managed to squeeze out of Lotte the other day.  

Akko quickly typed in the override code, ignoring the little voice inside her head telling her not to. She let out a small cheer as the door slid open and proceeded into the next hallway.  She only made it a few feet before the entire hallway seemed to shake and a low hum began.  Before Akko could react she was slammed into the ground.   Maybe that little voice in her head was actually Alcor, and maybe she should have listened.

Akko let out a pained groan as she felt blood trickle from her nose.  _God, I hope it's not broken._ She mentally pleaded as she tried to get up.  Suddenly, she became uncomfortably aware of how heavy everything felt. It was like someone had placed a bag of cement on her.   Using all her strength she tried again to push off the floor and slowly she made her way to her knees, causing the blood dripping from her nose to flow faster.   Then, just as soon as it started, the deep humming stopped and she began to lift off the ground.

"What the hell is going on?"  She murmured to herself as she tried to pinch back the bleeding.  She was unsure of what to do at this point.  She couldn't exactly leave the blood floating around, but she didn't want to stick around for whatever just happened to happen again.   But as luck would have it a small figure rounded the corner; It was head engineer Constanze something von something Albrechtsberger and _shit she looked pissed._ Akko nervously looked for an escape route, but it seemed that her ire wasn't directed at Akko; as soon as she saw the woman her anger morphed into surprise.

Bringing her hands up she began to sign,

_What are you doing here?  the crew quarters are supposed to be closed off right now_

"What?"   Akko cried from behind her hand, "why would the _crew_ quarters be closed off to the _crew_? this is the first time I've heard about this!"

Constanze just looked at her and sighed,

 _We had permission from the caption.   Just go to the infirmary.  I'll take care of the blood_.

Akko whined at her question not being answered, but she knew that if she stayed any longer the tiny engineer would take back her offer to clean up.  So, she quickly turned and began to head for the med-bay.

***

"So you're telling me you broke your nose by going into an area that we were told specifically not to enter, and got caught up in a wave of overly calibrated artificial gravity?" Hannah asked, unsure if she should snicker or face palm.

"I just told you I didn't know about that! And why the hell are they testing it in the crew quarters; the engineering team has plenty of labs to do that in." Akko huffed, folding her arms in front of her.

"Wait, is it really broken?" Akko cried out, registering the first part of Hannah's scolding.

“Yes, now hold still,” before Akko could protest, Hannah took hold of her nose and with a sickening ‘pop’ she set it back in place, “there, it’ll be sore but you should be fine in a day or so”

“Thanks, Hannah!”

“Doctor.” She corrected.

“Yeah yeah, thanks Doc. Now, come on, I know you know why they weren’t testing that thing in one of their labs, so spill!” Hannah shook her head.   The woman in front of her could be persistent as hell when she wanted to.

“I’m sure you noticed first hand that they’ve been struggling with calibrating the system?   Well, it was even worse before; The pressure the artificial gravity put on the room caused one of their little projects to explode.  Two of them ended up with some bad burns and shrapnel in them, so Diana and Barbara both went down to help on site. That was a few hours ago, since then the rest of the engineering team decided to move the testing to a location with less…volatile items in it.”

Akko nodded in understanding as she absentmindedly poked at the bruise forming on her nose, wincing slightly each time.

“Akko, stop that.”

“Hey, you called me Akko!” the comms officer chirped happily, ignoring Hannah’s instructions and continuing to lightly poke at her nose.

Hannah let out a strained sigh as she turned away and headed back to her work space.  Upon settling down she looked up to see Akko had made no move to leave, “what are you still doing here?”

Akko looked over to Hannah, a light blush dusting her cheeks, “well, uh...I was hoping to maybe wait for, uh... someone?” The two silently stared at each other, daring the other to say more.  After all, they both knew exactly who Akko was talking about.  Honestly, Hannah felt that she deserved a raise of some sort for always being the one who had to put up with this childishness nonsense.  It most certainly did not help that Diana was nearly as bad, and Barbara, her supposed best friend encouraged it! The whole station knew, yet no one had just taken the initiative and locked to two in a storage closet somewhere.  No, Hannah decided, she'd be nice one last time, but if they didn't get together before the end of the week she’d do just that!

“I suppose you can stay,” she started slowly, “just stay put and be quiet, ok?” Akko nodded vigorously in thanks, intent on following Hannah's orders.  A heavy silence fell over the room as Hannah went back to work.  And Akko, impatient as always, began to twiddle her thumbs and look around the spacious white room; it had several areas that could be closed off for privacy as well as a completely sealed off area for any possible quarantines.  And of course there were the three work stations belonging to the three doctors of the station, all but one currently unoccupied. Akko settled her wandering eyes out the single large window in the room, and was once again greeted by empty black nothingness. The gentle hum generated by the various medical equipment and the sharp clicking of Hannah's keyboard added to the atmosphere of the room, lulling Akko into a state of Zen.  In fact, Akko was so zoned out that she didn't even notice when the door slid open and two women floated in, midway through a conversation.

“All I’m saying is,” the smaller dark-haired woman lamented, “you'd think that after three days of working on restoring the artificial gravity to the Ring, they'd have more to show then two injured engineers and a broken...whatever that thing was.”  The other women merely nodded as she made her way to her desk. Tired-out from the events of her day, she failed to notice the patient on the other side of the room.  The black-haired woman continued her rant, “I mean, what do they even do over there? To hav-oh, hello Akko!”  

Akko snapped out of her haze, looking over to who had just called her name, “Barbara! Hiya!” she froze, behind Barbara was...

“Di-Diana!” the women in question had snapped into a rigid upright position the moment she had realized the small, Japanese woman was in the room.

There was a flurry of motion and a startled ‘hey!’ as Hannah launched herself into Barbara, towing her out of the room, “I just forgot we had something we had to do somewhere!” She called out as the door closed behind them, leaving Akko and Diana alone.

“So-”

“I-”

Akko broke eye contact first, mentally chastising herself for her awkwardness, “um, you first!” she giggled nervously.

“I actually do have a lot of paperwork to do,” Diana started, Akko seemed to deflate at the other woman's words, “but if you don't mind, I could always use the company.” She finished, causing the woman to perk up and make her way over to one of the empty desks.  Diana flashed her a warm smile before setting to work on her various reports, letting a comfortable silence fall over the room.  

Akko opted to silently study the women in front of her.  Ever since their first meeting, Akko had thought the other woman was gorgeous, even if their relationship had started off rocky.  Akko smiled internally to herself; the first time they had met they were both were assigned to the same training group, and instantly the two had clashed.  Diana would always act like she was in charge, bossing the other trainees around, whereas Akko would cause a mishap in every training they stepped into.  It was a wonder neither killed the other, accidently or otherwise.  It was only after the Luna Nova set off that Akko learned that Diana really was in charge, in a sense.  Her family had funded the mission and her mother was meant to be the captain, at least till her health took a turn for the worse. Diana was going to back down from the mission to stay on earth, but her mother had talked her out of it.  Less than three months after leaving earth Akko had set up a video call for Diana to see her mother one last time. That was a hard time for everyone aboard the station.  It was also when their relationship had shifted; the young doctor had begun to isolate herself from the rest of the crew, and they were letting her. But, Akko refused to do the same and made a point to visit Diana whenever she could, made sure she would eat, sleep, or simply interact with other living beings outside of patching them up.  Soon enough, Akko stopped having to remind Diana to take care of herself.  Neither wanted stopped seeing one another, however.  So they continued to spend any moment of rest in each other's company.  It only made sense that Akko would fall for the blonde, but the issue was that she couldn't figure out how to tell her about these feelings.

So for now-in the present-she unabashedly traced Diana's features with her eyes, almost daring the other woman to notice.

After a moment, Akko focused her gaze on the gentle slope of her nose.  She was so distracted by said nose that she barely noticed when it turned to face her.

“So, why were you in here again, Akko?”

The woman in question blinked once, then twice, registering that yes, she was currently being addressed.

“I can't be in here just to see my favorite girl?” Akko shot back, not wanting to admit to her little accident.

 Diana rolled her eyes, feigning annoyance, but her light blush gave herself away, “Akko, I say this in the nicest way possible, but you can't seem to go a week without hurting yourself, I highly doubt you were only in here to see me.”  

Diana was right, nearly every week there was something.  

There was the time she had gotten into an argument with her roommate, a chemist by the name of Sucy Manbavaran, who had brought some chemicals from her labs into their shared cabin.  Things got physical and Akko ended up getting a serious chemical burn on her leg. Despite her genuine apology, the chemist still stood her ground in that the incident could have been avoided if Akko had minded her business.  

There was another incident where Akko went on a space walk with Constanze to fix the communication array.  In an instance of complete dumb luck, a bolt broke and Akko got pinned by the large antenna.  Thankfully Akko’s suit didn't puncture, but she was left with a broken arm and a slight fear of being on the outside of the station.

There had been countless other accidents just like those over the years, and while she didn't like making Diana worry, she always joked that the woman would have gone crazy if she didn't have a constant flow of injuries to treat.

Akko clicked her tongue in annoyance at Diana seeing through her so fast, “ok, so I may have broken my nose.”

“Akko, how did you even manage that?” Diana sighed pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Well, funny story...” she was about to explain her mishap when her comm buzzed.  Akko quickly yanked it out of her pocket and flipped it on, “Hello, this is Kagari speaking.”

After a moment a rather panicked Amanda replied back, “Akko, get your ass to the bridge, now!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if this is still a thing, but there used to be a "you must be this tall to ride" for astronauts and it was like 5'6(?) so sorry conz.  
> anyways, reviews are always greatly appreciated and I'll try to get chapters out in a more timely manner in the future.  
> thanks to kokodoru and myrtenasterrose on tumblr for helping me edit this!

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys are interested, I have a lot planned, but i gotta get a rhythm going first, so bare with me  
> I'll try and update this at a consistent pace  
> and thanks to @repeteoffender53 on tumblr for helping me edit this :D


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